Pitting of fruits such as cherries and olives has been a time-consuming factor for small and large commercial growers for many decades. In order to employ a fruit such as cherries for preserves, salads, or pies and the like, the fruit once picked, must be processed to remove the pit at the center of the fruit which in nature functions as a seed.
Conventionally, pitting machines are employed by large companies and large grower cooperatives possessing the financial wherewithal to purchase or lease the machines capable of removing the pit from cherries and the like. Many such pitting devices are only leased to users and also require a royalty payment per pound of fruit that has been de-pitted, in addition to lease payments. While large expensive machines may work well for such large suppliers and food processors, small concerns such as family farms and organic food producers growing their own produce do not have that financial capability to purchase and lease the expensive conventional machinery. Such small growers are at the mercy of the larger processors for their fruit or have had to find other means to de-pit such foods should they wish to sell it for increase profit.
Hand pitting is a particularly expensive and time-consuming process if employees are used who must be paid. Further the workers are subject to repetitive injuries to their hands and fingers due to the actions required to de-pit fruit such as cherries. Family concerns not paying family members to pit still must take valuable time from other chores to remove the pits from produce they process so they can be cooked in pies and preserves or provided to local restaurants at increased prices.
Consequently, there is an unmet need for a pitting device, which is simple in operation to thereby minimize maintenance costs, and also has a very short learning curve for small users. Such a device should be inexpensive enough for small concerns to own and use and provide sufficient mechanization to speed up the pitting process and allow increase production for cooking and provision to restaurants and the like which is a mainstay of small producers. Mechanically, such a device needs to be simple in construction to allow for user maintenance as well as to provide for reduced chance of equipment failure that simplicity in design affords.
With respect to the above, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the pitting invention herein in detail or in general, it is to be understood that the device and mode of operation disclosed herein is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components or the steps set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The various methods and combinations of components of the pitting apparatus of the disclosed invention are capable of other embodiments, and of being practiced and carried out in various ways, all of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art once the information herein is reviewed. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for other pitting machines and the like, for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device and method. It is important, therefore, that the embodiments, objects and claims herein, be regarded as including such equivalent methodology and operational components insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.